the unsung heroines of sports history

The All American Red
Heads was one of the first professional women's basketball teams. They were
the female equivalent of the all-male Harlem Globetrotters; Like the
Globetrotters, they were stellar at the game of basketball but also
delightfully pleasing entertainers. In 1936, almost 50 years after women's
basketball began, C. M. "Ole" Olson started a barnstorming team
which would play around the country until 1986. Olson recruited and hired
seven female players who had all played on various basketball teams that
were part of the American Athletic Union. The women were great players, one
of them was 6-feet tall, and two of the seven women had red hair. (After
the first few years, Olson or team members must have turned to dye or henna
treatments as later descriptions of the team report them all as red heads.)
They played by men's rules and were a smash success with the audience.
Their competition was always a local men's team. The All American Red Heads
traveled cross-country, playing to packed houses almost every night;
occasionally they played double-headers. A reporter for Life magazine
(4-17-39) writes that audiences paid 25-40 cents to come to the games to
"see female muscle seriously pitted against male muscle." The women were
more than great athletes--they were great performers. The Life reporter
described their "circus like shooting" and "rough style." #butchhistory